Seeya Analysis

INTRODUCTION:

This is an analysis of the New Zealand website seeya.co.nz. Seeya is an independent website promoting cheap airfares (and other methods of transport) efficiently and immediately from a variety of sources. The low-priced flights are advertised from grabaseat (a New Zealand company) and Jet Star (an international company). Additionally hotels, car rentals, cruises and more are 

In this brief, I will discuss the three major aspects which contribute to the site’s overall image and effect, and whether they serve their purpose. Firstly the display, including pictures, colours and text, and secondly the navigation. This will involve analysing the position and order links, as well as the reasoning behind it.

DISPLAY:

When we first arrive at this page, this is what we see:

What we first see is very important, because as Wysocki says, ”when you first look at a page or a screen, you initially understand its functions and purpose because it follows the visual conventions of a genre”. Initially, the first thing we notice here are the colours. The colours of a web page can have a significant psychological effect on the viewers and express many different ideologies. These colours represent the image the company is trying to project for itself. For instance, Seeya uses very soft, light colours. Along with a vivid white background, the colour palette for this website consists of green, yellow, orange, cream and various shades of blue. The white helps to make everything else stand out, and also adds a sense of professionalism. A black bar along the top of the page helps maintain the site’s symmetry and features the more business-like or purposeful links. We can see the colour blue used for the majority of the font. The use of blue is very significant in this case as it closely resembles the sky. It is also very calming and adds to the laidback feel of the website. Orange is used for the prices to attract attention, and is associated with cheapness. The overall shading of the first page is fresh, beautiful and clean. Again, this has a significant effect on the viewer. As Resnick (1997) says, the point of a website is "to inform, influence, and persuade those who log onto them", which Seeya achieves with its colours.

The logo, as shown here, also adds to the website’s overall atmosphere. It consists of not one, but three different shades of blue. This makes it much softer than just a single solid colour, and more inviting in general. The font is very rounded and comfortable looking. Upon seeing this, the viewer unconsciously decides the site is both casual and friendly.

NAVIGATION:

Seeya displays all of its links on the home page, allowing easy and immediate access to all of the websites features. They make the choice to have the advertised flights shown here rather than on a separate page. This way viewers who are on Seeya specifically for the airfare deals can see them straight away, and if not, are intrigued by them regardless. The list also has a scrolling motion, and goes through a number of flights rather than featuring just a few. This movement also helps to attract the viewer’s attention. Each flight links to the page where all flights are shown in full. The list has two headers for both Grab a Seat and Jet Star, and can switch between them without moving off the main page or opening a new tab. Additionally, underneath the flights is a link to sign up to the website in order to receive alerts by email.

 As stated previously, the bar at the top of the screen shows links such as “About Us”, “Login” and “Sign Up”, as well as links to Twitter and Facebook. These are placed in the top left corner of the home page, and use a smaller font than the other headers. The reason these links are placed separately from the others and in a less obvious manner is because these are for the more constant visitors of the website, rather than someone just browsing it. 

The next row down situated underneath the logo and an advertisement are the main links, and frame the entire page. Each link has a drop down selection of other relevant links, making it easy to find the relevant information without clicking through a multiple of pages. “TODAYS CHEAP FLIGHTS” is centred in the middle of the other links as the main aspect of the website. Seeya ensures the website is user friendly by repeating its links. The ease of navigation within a website can be crucial to maintaining it. Warnick (2006) describes this briefly. “As the Web has become more of a commercial platform, it has become more structured and more influenced by commercial forces. Consumers expect to be able to find what they need quickly and easily and to have their questions readily answered.”  Seeya fulfils this by having all the home page links are displayed in neat lists and in a smaller font at the bottom of the screen. This adds more chance to the viewer seeing the link, and means they don’t have to make an effort in an attempt to find it. The same goes for the main links at the top of the page. No matter what page the viewer is on, they can easily find their way back to the home page, or any of the other pages featured on the site.

CONCLUSION:

Seeya’s use of bright colours, neat arrangement and relevant font ensure the page appeals to the viewer’s eye immediately. Psychologically, the choice of display gives the viewer the feeling that this website is casual, friendly and more importantly, organised and genuine, before reading a single thing. The website is efficient in its organisation of links and the continuous layout for each page, so that the viewer can navigate their way through the site with ease. Seeya successfully promotes its cheap airfares with a combination of all these aspects.

Stacey Adeane

REFERENCES:

Wysocki, Anne Frances. 2003. The Multiple Media of Texts: How Onscreen and Paper Texts incorporate Words, Images, and Other Media. In What Writing Does and How It Does It: An Introduction to Analysis of Text and Textual Practices. Edited by Charles Bazerman and Paul Prior. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates.

Warnick, B. 2006. Rhetoric Online. Persuasion and Politics on the World Wide Web. Peter Lang Publishing Inc., New York.

Resnick, 11. 1997. Politics on the Internet: The normalization of cyberspace. New Political Science 41-42.